La Plume de NOM for June 2015

The Magazine of New Orleans Mensa Information and Entertainment

FROM THE LOCSEC

Well, June in the city means the start of Hurricane season, so it’s time to prepare for the upcoming six months.

Our group participated in CultureQuest and we had great fun. I went to San Diego to participate in MindGames and enjoyed myself as well.

Nationally, the Annual Gathering will be held in Louisville, Kentucky this year. In this issue, there’s information about a casting call, a list of puns, and the Excomm meeting notes. Brainfork is on a summer hiatus.

Sportswise, the Pelicans made the playoffs, but didn’t go far. The Zephyrs are in full swing. The Arena team VooDoo are playing through August, and our soccer team, the Jesters, are playing through July.

So let’s go VooDoo, Zephyrs, and Jesters!

So The Story Goes Like This

So I was writing an article for a newspaper in a small city in West Texas. This article was about a local couple who met in cooking classes at the local college.

They were in different classes, but they used the same kitchen and their classes happened to overlap one evening. She was taking an Italian class and was boiling the pasta at the time they first met. He was taking a meat class and he was grilling meat on the indoor grill. Like some other stories I know, they just happened to meet, started dating, fell in love, and ended up marrying each other.

“Aw,” I said, “that’s so sweet …”

“... it’s another boil meets grill story.”

News and Notes for Young Mensans

Happenings & Celebrations

June 3: Mt. Chimborazo Day:

Celebrate the mountain whose summit is farther from the center of the Earth than any other mountain peak. Read more about this Ecuadorian mountain at summitpost.org/chimborazo/150349

June 6: Yo-Yo Day:

Find cool tricks kids can do at http://bit.ly/kids-yoyo.

June 18: International Picnic Day:

Here are some picnic ideas to try bit.ly/picnic-ideas.

June 21: Solstice Day:

Find out exactly when the solstice will occur in your town at bit.ly/june-solstice.

June 30: Meteor Watch Day:

Find out more here: stardate.org/nightsky/meteors.

Triviality

Here are some facts about the month of June:

• June is one of four months with exactly 30 days.
• June ends on the same day of the week as March in all years.
• June has three birthstones: pearl, alexandrite and moonstone.
• June is probably named for Juno, Roman queen of the gods.
• June is the month with the longest daylight hours of the year in the Northern Hemisphere and the shortest daylight hours of the year in the Southern Hemisphere.

Benefit Highlight:

Have you seen the redesigned mensaforkids.org site? In addition to easier navigation and mobile responsiveness (you can view it on your phone!), it also includes information about Mensa programs for members. Eventually, it will host comprehensive information about all programs, but for now, you can find information about the Mensa Honor Society and the Mensa Book Parade. You can also sign up for the monthly newsletter, Bright.

Lisa Van Gemert

Youth & Education Ambassador |mensafoundation.org

lisav@americanmensa.org

get resources: pinterest.com/brightkids |explore: mensaforkids.org

More Youth News

Clueful 10 Contest

Are you a closet sleuth? This contest celebrates detective stories and the authors who created them. Answer the ten questions, including solving a riddle, and submit your answers. Research is allowed! Winners will be drawn from the submissions with all ten answers correct.

Things you need to know:

• This contest is open to members of American Mensa under the age of 18.
• We have three divisions: 7 & under; 8 – 12; 13 – 17, and we will choose a winner from each category. Winners will receive $10 Amazon gift cards with which to purchase the mystery book of their choice.

Questions:

1. What was the English novelist Arthur Conan Doyle's profession?

2. In The Mysterious Benedict Society, the ad in the paper was looking for gifted kids interested in what?

3. What is the name and profession of Nancy Drew’s father?

4. Who won the money from Mr. Westing?

5. Laura was the mother of which brother sleuthing duo?

6. Blue M&Ms play a role in this book whose title could be called Running after a Dutch Master.

7. Which author wrote: “And what might seem to be a series of unfortunate events may, in fact, be the first steps of a journey”?

8. Leroy is the name of this young sleuth whose nickname has two words and who charges twenty-five cents (plus expenses) to solve crimes.

9. In this novel, Claudia decides to run away and live in New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art. She never counted on getting caught up in a mystery.

10. A grandfather is telling his grandson war stories. "At the end of World War 1, I was awarded for my bravery after saving a group of my men," the grandfather says. "You see, we were fighting in northern France and one of our enemies threw a grenade at us. I managed to pick it up and throw it away before it exploded. So right after the war ended, a General gave me a sword, engraved with the words 'Awarded for Bravery and Valor, A True Hero, World War 1'." The grandson thinks about the story for a minute and then says "Grandpa, that story can't be true!" How did the grandson know?

Email your entries to GiftedYouth@americanmensa.org with “Clueful Contest” as the subject. The entry may not be an attachment – send your answers in the body of the email.

Entries must be received in our office by July 15th, 2015.

One entry per member.

All entries must identify the Young Mensan’s full name and Mensa membership number.

Entries may be published in Young Mensan Magazine.

All entrants will receive a certificate of participation.

Information about current and past contests is available at us.mensa.org/gycontests.

And More Youth News

Casting Call

Casting is underway for season two of Child Genius, the docu-series that features children with exceptionally high IQs and abilities far beyond their grade level.

Providing the framework for the series, the children will take part in a challenging intelligence competition, created in cooperation with American Mensa.

If you have a grandchild, niece, nephew or know of family friend's child that may have yet to join Mensa, but would be interested in this opportunity, please feel free to share this information with them, as well.

Shed Media, the production company behind Child Genius season one and the genealogy series Who Do You Think You Are, is looking for highly gifted/profoundly gifted children (aged 8-12) and their families who would be interested to participate.

The academic competition designed to test the nation's brightest kids, will take place during the summer vacation (July/early August). The children will be competing for the title of Child Genius, along with a substantial contribution to their college fund. The series will be broadcast on Lifetime.

By moving forward with this casting call, you alone would accept all the liabilities and/or any rewards that may/may not come based on your involvement with this program. Although American Mensa will consult on the competition phase of the program, we are not recommending or discouraging your participation, as the final edit of the series in solely with the producers and network.

If you are interested or would like to hear more about the series, please contact the casting team at Shed Media by email: ChildGenius2015@gmail.com

Puns for Educated Minds

The lowest form of wit and for anyone who likes and appreciates language.

• How does Moses make his tea? Hebrews it….
• Venison for dinner again? Oh deer!
• A cartoonist was found dead in his home. Details are sketchy.
• I used to be a banker, but then I lost interest.
• Haunted French pancakes give me the crepes.
• England has no kidney bank, but it does have a Liverpool .
• I tried to catch some fog, but I mist.
• They told me I had type-A blood, but it was a Type-O.
• I changed my iPod's name to Titanic. It's syncing now.
• Jokes about German sausages are the wurst.
• I know a guy who's addicted to brake fluid, but he says he can stop any time.
• I stayed up all night to see where the sun went, and then it dawned on me.
• This girl said she recognized me from the vegetarian club, but I'd never met herbivore.
• When chemists die, apparently they barium.
• I'm reading a book about anti-gravity. I just can't put it down.
• I did a theatrical performance about puns. It was a play on words.
• I didn't like my beard at first. Then it grew on me.
• Did you hear about the cross-eyed teacher who lost her job because she couldn't control her pupils?
• When you get a bladder infection you know urine trouble.
• Broken pencils are pretty much pointless.
• What do you call a dinosaur with an extensive vocabulary? A thesaurus.
• I dropped out of the Communism class because of lousy Marx.
• All the toilets in New York 's police stations have been stolen. As of now, it appears the police have nothing to go on.
• I got a job at a bakery because I kneaded dough.
• Velcro - what a rip off.

From the RVC

For good or ill, this is the last column I shall ever write as your Regional Vice Chairman. As I compose this, in early May, voting is still underway, and I have no way of knowing who my successor will be, but one way or another, the next time you see this column it will have someone else’s name on it.

I want to begin by offering my sincere thanks to all of you for giving me the opportunity of serving you as your RVC for the past six years. It has been a wonderful experience, and I hope you have found my representation satisfactory. Depending on the outcome of the current election, I may or may not be on the national Board of Directors next term, but either way I will always be looking for opportunities to improve our organization.

Next, as this is my last chance to share my thoughts with all of you, I would like to take this opportunity to invite you to consider how Mensa works. In this election season, we have heard from a number of candidates and their supporters who claim that Mensa has somehow been taken away from the membership. If you’ll take a moment to examine this claim, you’ll quickly realize just how ridiculous it is. You, the members, elect the national officers. They are not hereditary aristocrats, nor have they seized power in some sort of armed coup. They are responsible to you, and they have no other end in mind than to improve the organization. Their only fault is that, being human and therefore imperfect, they may err occasionally. They serve without pay, and give up many hours of their time to sit in meeting rooms debating the best ways to forward the aims of American Mensa. It is not feasible for 57,000 members to make all the decisions required to run a multi-million dollar corporation, so you elect a handful of officers to do the decision-making. If you don’t like their decisions, you can vote against them in the next election.

I have been sorely disappointed in last few months to read the spate of mean-spirited misrepresentations, half-truths, and outright lies spread by a handful of members who have accused your national officers of everything from incompetence to embezzlement because we had the temerity to make decisions these people disagreed with. They are unable or unwilling to consider the possibility that they might be wrong (hey – they’re Mensans, so of course they must be right) and therefore they want you to believe that the people you put into office must be at best untrustworthy and at worst malicious or possibly criminal. I promise you, nothing could be further from the truth.

I am very grateful for the support you have given me as your elected representative; I respectfully ask you to please extend that same support to my successor and the other national officers. Don’t let the naysayers and the malcontents win. Thank you.

New Orleans Mensa EXCOM Meeting

Saturday, May 9, 2015

Home of Bart Geraci

Members present: Bart Geraci,Claudia D'Aquin,Phil Therrien, Robert Myers, Summer McKnight, Kevin Chesnut, Gerry Ward.

Meeting called to order at 5:15 p.m.

Old Business:

• Bart presented the minutes from the February meeting. The minutes were accepted.

New Business:

1. Bart will check with Sharon Kirkpatrick about taking over as historian for our chapter.
2. Treasurer's report: Current balance: $10,989.98 as of March 31, 2015.
3. RG update: National asked for the weekend of Dec. 4-6, in order to have their meeting here. There is a major convention that weekend which makes it impossible for them because of the lack of availability of hotel rooms. Lovie reported that the hotels will not allow us to bring in outside food this time, so it will be more expensive this time. It was decided that we would seek a different month for an RG, as we need to be sure that we will have enough attendance to make the event viable. We are now discussing Halloween weekend as a possible date. This would have to be for 2016, as October is too close to arrange for this year. Lovie will start investigating this.
4. Bart mentioned that we have 43 lapsed members; this is consistent with last year's numbers. He will send reminder emails and also regular mail to these members.
5. Bart will be out of town and Robert will serve as acting LocSec during his absence.
6. No updates yet on possible carnival krewe participation. Bart is working on this info.
7. Bart moved that we make a donation in memory of Phil's wife, Angie Therrien, to the Leukemia Society. Robert suggested the amount of $1 per active member. Claudia seconded this motion. The motion passed. As Phil is our treasurer, he was asked to issue the check in the amount if $207.00 to the appropriate party.
8. Kevin informed us that Mensa National will stop providing local chapters with mailing labels to mail the print copy of the newsletter later this year; that expense will now fall to the chapter. Solutions? We can acquire the software to print address labels, but should also make a new push to get members to accept electronic delivery. We currently have 30 members who receive only the print copy. 25 members elected to receive electronic delivery, but did not supply an email address, so they receive print, and 46 members who have not elected any delivery option and have no email on file, so they receive print. These 81 must continue to be mailed. Kevin will continue to mail as he does now for the time being, until the labels actually stop coming.

Next ExComm meeting will be August 8, 5:00 p.m., Bart's house.

All business being concluded, the meeting was adjourned at 6:30 p.m.

Submitted by Claudia D'Aquin, Secretary

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